WALL: HELLDUN TIMBER SALE

Speaking of Oakridge, did they ever discover how the fire at the Oakridge
headquarters a couple years back was started? There was some speculation
that EF was involved.
Scott Mcphee
Recycled News wrote in message <528_9809282032 at extra.lafn.org>...
>> HELLDUN TIMBER SALE COULD BE CUT IN 60 DAYS
>>Last Friday Middle Fork District Ranger Rick Scott made a decision to
>implement the Helldun timber sale. This means that within 60 days the
>contract holder, Scott Timber, can begin logging the sale.
>>We are asking everyone to redouble their efforts--to contact the Forest
>Service and Scott Timber and tell them that the public will not stand by
>and watch this pristine area cut.
>>We will be having a hike to the Helldun timber sale on Sunday, October 4.
>Rides leave the Growers Market (454 Willamette St.) at 10:00am SHARP.
>Bring good shoes or boots, a sack lunch, water, and be prepared for rain.
>>We will also be having weekly meetings upstairs at the Growers Market for
>those interested in getting involved with the campaigm to stop Helldun and
>protect the Warner Wilderness. The meetings are every Monday night at
>6:30pm. Hope to see you there.
>>For more information please email jdj at efn.org or call (541) 747-9116.
>>Background information on the Helldun timber sale is included below.
>>>>A TIMBER SALE FROM HELL
>>>The Warner Wilderness
>> The Warner Wilderness is a land of immense beauty and ecological
>significance. Located approximately 9 miles to the east of the town of
>Oakridge, to the west of the Congressionally designated Waldo Lake and
>Three Sisters Wilderness, it is composed of 4 different roadless areas
>totalling more than 35,000 acres. It is of yet UNPROTECTED by Congress.
>Most of the area is in land designated as "matrix" by President Clinton's
>Northwest Forest Plan and is slated for logging and road building. This
>is a pristine area. In many places there are no roads, no clearcuts, no
>sign at all of human presence. The Warner Wilderness is dominated by
>such spectacular features as Bunchgrass Ridge and the Warner Creek burn.
>To the north, Kelsey Creek descends through a lush moss-draped forest with
>trees up to 900 years old. More than a hundred miles of hiking trails in
>the area provide visitors with opportunities for solace and scenic beauty.
>>The Warner Creek Campaign
>> In 1991, arsonists set a fire that burned 9,000 acres in one of the
>areas protected from logging in the Warner Wilderness. The Forest Service
>promptly awarded this criminal act with 30 million board feet worth of
>salvage sales. These sales were canceled after a storm of protest,
>including an 11 month road blockade by Southern Willamette Earth First!
>and the Cascadia Forest Defenders.
>>The Helldun Timber Sale
>> The Forest Service left the Warner Wilderness alone for two years. But
>the Middle Fork Ranger District of the Willamette National Forest is now
>bent on logging a 10 million board foot timber sale in the Warner
>Wilderness. This sale--called "Helldun"--will log right next to the
>Warner Creek burn, within the boundaries of the old Warner South Salvage
>sale. This area Helldun will disrupt a 2,000 acre block of undisturbed
>habitat crucial to sensitive species like black bear, cougar, peregrine
>falcon, goshawk, pine marten, fisher, wolverine, pileated woodpecker and
>northern spotted owls. It will interrupt an important connectivity
>corridor for wildlife that connects the roadless areas with the
>high-elevation Wildernesses to the east. Logging will also disrupt the
>integrity of the Eagle Creek Special Interest Area, an area designated by
>the Forest Service for its unique scenic and ecological qualities.
>Helldun will log on steep unstable slopes uphill from high quality water
>sources that provide habitat for bull trout and Chinook salmon. Logging
>also risks landslides, erosion, increased peak flows, and elevated
>turbidity and temperature regimes in streams.
> Worst of all, Helldun is the first of many timber sales that will tear
>apart the Warner Wilderness--one of the last, best places on earth.
>>Revenge of the Salvage Rider
>> Helldun is one of the first of many "Replacement Volume" timber sales
>in the Willamette National Forest. In 1995, Congress passed the infamous
>"Salvage Rider." This bill required the Forest Service to harvest timber
>"to the maximum extent feasible," and revoked ALL environmental laws. A
>few of the worst timber sales awarded during the Salvage Rider were
>canceled, but the Rider mandated that these sales be replaced with other
>timber sales of equal kind and value. The Willamette National Forest must
>provide over 60 million board feet--approximately 13,000 logging trucks
>worth--of old-growth timber in spotted owl habitat to replace Salvage
>Rider sales canceled in old-growth marbled murrelet habitat in the coast
>range. This endangered species shell game will decimate some of the last
>old-growth stands in the Cascades. Independent experts estimate that the
>Forest Service is awarding timber companies more than three times as much
>timber volume as they are owed with sales like Helldun.
>>The Research Natural Area
>> Instead of cutting the Warner Wilderness for short-term profits,
>concerned citizens have proposed that the area be set aside as a Research
>Natural Area (RNA). The citizen-proposed W.A.R.N.E.R. RNA would preserve
>44,000 acres for scientific research into the unique ecological
>characteristics of the Warner Wilderness and protect it for future
>generations to enjoy.
>>>WHAT YOU CAN DO
>>>* Call and write the Forest Service at the following addresses:
>>District Ranger Rick Scott
>Middle Fork Ranger District
>P.O. Box 1410
>Oakridge, OR 97492 (541) 782-2266
>>Forest Supervisor Darrel Kenops
>Willamette National Forest
>P.O. Box 10607
>Eugene, OR 97440-2607
>(541) 465-6521
>>* Call or write your elected officials and ask them to work to cancel the
>Helldun sale and permanently protect the Warner Creek Wilderness. Tell
>them you support an end to all public lands logging.
>>Rep. Peter DeFazio
>Suite 400
>151 W. 7th Ave.
>Eugene, OR 97401
>(541) 465-6732
>pdefazio at hr.house.gov>>Sen. Ron Wyden
>Suite 435
>151 W. 7th Ave.
>Eugene, OR 97401
>(541) 431-0229
>>* Write a letter to the editor in support of the Warner Creek Wilderness.
>>Mailbag
>Register Guard
>P.O. Box 10188
>Eugene, OR 97440-2188
>Fax: (541) 338-2828
>E-mail: RGLetters at guardnet.com>>Eugene Weekly Letters
>1251 Lincoln St.
>Eugene, OR 97401
>E-mail: editor at eugeneweekly.com>>* Visit the Cascadia Forest Defenders educational basecamp at the Helldun
>timber sale. Take Highway 58 east from I-5 (exit 188A). Stay on Highway
>58 for 50 miles, 13 miles past of Oakridge. Just past milepost 50, take a
>left onto Eagle Creek Road (Forest Service Road 5883, just past the train
>trestle). Stay on 5883 for approx. 4 miles. Take a left onto road 375.
>Follow 375 for approx. 3/4 of a mile. Take a right onto road 376. Follow
>376 for approx. 1/2 mile. This is a bad road and you might have to park
>and walk. Basecamp is located approximately 50 yards past where 376
>becomes completely impassable. Welcome!
>>>